3 years later, the Intelligent Toys releases are still a mainstay in my music library. Some may find them uneven, as pointed out by another reviewer, but it's a sampler compilation intended to spark interest in artists you may never have heard about otherwise, and it excels in this regard.

I wanted to make a few points about the style of the electronic music in general, but it's impossible to talk about electronic music as a "style" rather than as a production method. (And don't even bring up that pretentious term "IDM".) Consider the music we call "Classical music" - generally this means the period when Mozart and Beethoven were producing, but at the time it was only known as "music".

Intelligent Toys is a refreshing sampling of modern music, period. Get every volume (1-5 for now). Look up the artists you like, buy their albums (though many give their music away on their respective websites), and discover the road less traveled - it will be far more satisfying than what you can hear on FM these days. These artists are taking sound and the listening experience in a new direction. I just wish I could find this whole collection in FLAC!

When i saw the new Intelligent Toys release, I thought wow.. this should be interesting - so many well known artist in one compilation. I've downloaded the whole album and began to listen. After each track i got less and less fascinated, because the tracks were so desperate and unremarkable (exept two or three songs). After several times of listening to this compilation, i've understood - Sometimes "free" doesn't mean "amazing" - and deleted the whole directory.
I'm not saying that this compilation is bad. It's sort of musics taste thing. I know only one thing - those artist have released many amazing songs, but these songs are not in this compilation.

Intelligent Toys 1 is probably the release that put Sutemos on the map and make them one of the top Netlabel for IDM and Ambient artists. Just when everyone thought Intelligent Toys 1 is best free IDM compilation album that could have been made, Sutemos once again shocked us with their release of Intelligent Toys 2 a year ago. Intelligent Toys 2 is a double album that is full of even better never before released tracks from various IDM artists. And then, we thought IT2 was among the best IDM compilation albums ever.

A few days ago, I was delighted to have received an email from Sutemos informing me about the release of Intelligent Toys 3. Frankly, I was rather disappointed on my first round of listening. Probably it was due to my high expectation of the Intelligent Toys series and probably it was because IT3 isnâÂÂt really a melodic IDM album like IT1 and 2 were, IT3 is more of an ambient album than an IDM album.

I gave it a few more rounds of listening and the album just grew on me. An album full of unreleased ambient/IDM tracks by known artists that are carefully selected by the fine team of Sutemos producers. Each tracks are unique in their own ways and the Sutemos team has made a great job in the ordering of the tracks. As you proceed down the album listening from the first track, you just canâÂÂt help but drown in the sea of great ambient music and before you know it, you are already at the final minute of the last track.

Notable tracks:
Ruxpin - I Saw Her Standing There
An ambient track with minimal rhythm and simple melody line, but the nice use of vocallic sounding pads make this track stands out among the rest.

Sleepy Town Manufacture - Nostalgin
I simply love the good use of various noise and strange sound snippets to form part of NostalginâÂÂs complex yet impressive rhythm.

Bauri - Vinkelvolten I
Probably one of the the tracks with the strongest and most uniform beats in the album. The beats together with the soothing melody line makes it such a nice song to chill to.

http://gratisvibes.com/post/brain-stimulating-toys/